Mixing a recording with just voice and acoustic guitar

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hognogger

New member
I'm about to start recording a project at home. It's going to be mostly solo voice and acoustic guitar...

Some people have told me that the vocal has to go dead centre, no matter what, but then where should I put the guitar? Should I then make the recording mono?

For purposes of reference, does anyone know of any good CDs I could listen to by artists who have recorded with just an acoustic guitar and voice?
 
Just experiment. There isn't any set way you have to do things. So don't listen to the people that say you have to put the vocals dead center no matter what. A lot of people do it that way to put more emphasis on the singer in the mix...but it's not something that has to be done all the time. Feel free to pan the vocals center and then adjust the guitar from left to right. Put the vocals somewhere else, and do it again. You'll hear what you like. One way that I think might sound good is record the vocals and do a stereo recording on the guitar by facing a mic near the tone hole and another up closer to the fret board (a lot of people suggest 12th fret...you could go higher to capture more of the noise of the fingers moving on the fret). Then pan the tone hole track somewhere to the left and the other one to the right. With the vocals in the center this can give the illusion that the guitarist is right in front of you with the singer behind it. Get it?
As far as listening material...I'd say just go to the store and listen before you buy. I like a lot of John Mayer's stuff, although he doesn't play alone all the time. https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=123964 there's a song there that someone on the forum recorded. I really like the way he recorded the guitar on that one...you might check that out. Anyway, good luck. :cool:
 
hognogger said:
I'm about to start recording a project at home. It's going to be mostly solo voice and acoustic guitar...

Some people have told me that the vocal has to go dead centre, no matter what, but then where should I put the guitar? Should I then make the recording mono?
Click to expand...

Dead center vocal is a good start point, and then try the guitar just off to one side a couple degrees, or even each track just off center in either directions. Dont be afraid of mono though.


hognogger said:
For purposes of reference, does anyone know of any good CDs I could listen to by artists who have recorded with just an acoustic guitar and voice?
Click to expand...

Nick Drake's "Pink Moon"
 
Thanks for the advice guys - some good ideas for me to try out there. I might try stereo recording. And I like the idea of just panning the vocals & guitar slightly left/slightly right. That would give a little separation without making it too obvious.

Nick Drake - good example! Will have to track down a CD.
 
In the song in my signature line, I took advice from a board somewhere.

I tracked a couple of different guitar parts, like playing different chord voicings, and an acoustic, an electric. Then, I panned them a little differently. It seemed to keep the soundstage interesting.
 
I would leave the main vocal centre.

If you don't then you risk the vocal being lost if your stereo track is played on a mono system.

Besides. To me it just doesn't sound right if the lead vocal is not in the center.
 
I've just started recording so my advice doesn't have a lot of weight to it, but here's what I've been doing.

I record the guitar track in stereo using x-y or spaced pair conficuration. I aim the mics so that one pics up more of the bass response from the sound hole and pan it hard left. The other mic is aimed at the neck and picks up more upper frquency sound. This gets panned hard right. I record the vocal mono straight down the center.

My goal is to get it all to sound real, rather than studio good. I want it to sound like I'm sitting there singing and playing, a bit raw.
 
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